Exiled Chinese Dissident Recalls Past

Published 7:00 pm, Friday, January 31, 2003

Associated Press Writer

Pro-democracy advocate Xu Wenli was in his prison cell in 1989 when he heard gunshots from Tiananmen Square during the Chinese Communist Party's crackdown on protesters.

It was the same place and under similar conditions 13 years earlier that Xu had vowed to become an activist, a commitment that eventually led to his co-founding of the China Democracy Party _ and prison.

"I witnessed the people's government beat up people who only wanted to express their love for their country, young workers and young students," Xu told The Associated Press, while his daughter interpreted. "I realized the Chinese leaders were just a lie."

The 59-year-old was jailed in 1998 after trying to set up the opposition China Democracy Party with other activists. The communist government quickly crushed the party and sent dozens of members to prison, sentencing Xu to 13 years.

Xu was the first person convicted of endangering state security _ a charge that has been used against leading Chinese dissidents _ to be released early from prison, authorities have said. He was released in December.

Xu and his wife are now living in Pawtucket with their daughter, a sculptor who teaches art at a private school in Providence.

Xu was one of China's most dedicated advocates for democracy, said Merle Goldman, a research associate with Harvard University's Fairbank Center for East Asian Research.

"What makes him important is that unlike a lot of dissidents … he never tried to be part of the establishment," Goldman said. "It's easy to be a dissident within the establishment."

Even while Xu was imprisoned in China, the government closely controlled information about him. The result was that while Xu is well-known outside of China, present-day pro-democracy activists in his homeland know little about him.

Xu spent five years in the army as a young man before being assigned work as an electrician with a government-owned company.

Observing the poor working conditions, Xu concluded that Communist Party rhetoric paid tribute to workers but failed to truly represent them. As a worker, Xu made so little money he was forced to wear a single pair of shoes for 10 years.

"The Chinese government always says that they are a Communist Party organized by the workers and the working class," Xu said. "But the fact was the opposite."

But Xu wasn't stirred to act until he witnessed beatings by police officers in Tiananmen Square in the 1970s.

"The night of 1976, April 4, I decided to be against this government," Xu said. "The chance came in 1978."

That year brought the Democracy Wall movement, in which people posted pro-democracy messages on a wall in Beijing. It generated a storm of political criticism, including a journal Xu published.

Xu was arrested for his outspokenness in 1981 and tried in secret. He served 12 years and 48 days of a 15-year sentence _ much of that time in solitary confinement after he wrote a book detailing his arrest and had it smuggled out of prison and published.

Xu was released in 1993 and remained free for five years, working on the Chinese Democracy Party. But he was harassed by the authorities and a friend advised him to leave China. He wouldn't go.

After his arrest in 1998, his wife and daughter lobbied hard for his release, staging hunger strikes in Beijing and Washington and appealing to Western leaders. They asked for leniency on medical grounds _ Xu was diagnosed with Hepatitis B in 1999.

Last month, Chinese authorities freed Xu, citing his health. The release followed appeals by human rights groups and Western diplomats.

"I would like to think it signals change, but I don't think it signals change at all. It was a way to placate Western critics and appeal to the U.S.," said Goldman.